The Stripper's Guide blog discusses the history of the American newspaper comic strip.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Obscurity of the Day: Ambitious Activity the Amateur Detective

Here's my main man George Frink very early on in his long association with the Chicago Daily News comics page. In fact this is only his fourth series for the paper. (That may not sound all that early, but Frink was a restless soul; he did several dozen different series during his tenure.)

Ambitious Activity the Amateur Detective is an example of one of the mainstays of comic strips back in the day. Parodies of Sherlock Holmes abounded, and this is among the earliest sustained versions in the comic strip form. Frink produced the strip from December 28 1901 to March 7 1902. My guess is that Frink dropped this feature pretty quickly because at the tiny size at which the Daily News ran their strips it was pretty well impossible to set up a case to which Mr. A.A. could apply his master sleuthing prowess.

My name is Allan Holtz. I am a comic strip historian, and author of "American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide." This blog is my outlet for all manner of interesting, oddball and rare material related to comic strip history. It is also a forum where others interested in comic strip history are encouraged to participate through the comments, or even by contributing articles.
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